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Monday, December 31, 2012

Just a short note to wish all of my wonderful friends far and near a wonderful, safe and prosperous New Year. It has been my extreme pleasure knowing all of you for these last years since I started my blog. Your continued support of me and my crafting is more appreciated than words can say. May you have a wonderful, safe and Blessed New Year.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Well
here we are, the last challenge at Digistamps4Joy before we take a break for
Christmas. And we have such a wonderful challenge for everyone. The theme of
our challenge this time is “There’s Something Magical About Christmas”. We want
to see projects that depict “Your” meaning of the Magic of Christmas.

To
me, Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ, so the image that I used is NativityVillage.

I
coloured the image using my SU felts and my gold glitter pen. The black and the
gold cs is from Recollections. The oval shaped easel card is a svg file from The
Cutting Café that I printed out in pdf form and then cut it out by hand (I don’t
have a cutting machine).

I
decorated it with my Madera Corner Die by Memory Box, red roses from my local
dollar store (I know they look like they’re pink, but they are red lol), and
some red flat backed pearls by Recollections.

The
sentiment is by Teresa Arsenault and if you click on the picture you will get a close up of this wonderful sentiment. I cut it out using my Nestibilities
scallop die.

Now
it’s your turn to show us what makes Christmas “magical” to you. For some
fabulous ideas and to check out all of the rules and prizes for the challenge,
head on over to our Challenge Blog. Remember, our challenge lasts for 3 weeks
this time as we are taking a break over the Christmas holidays. Our next challenge
will start on January 9th, 2013.

I
would like to take this time to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and All of
the Best for the New Year.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

It’s time for
another reminder for Digistamps4Joy’s current challenge. Our current challenge
is called “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and we are looking for your creations that
make us think of the cold. It could be a snowman, a snow covered scene or even
a fireplace or a nice mug of hot chocolate. Whatever it is that makes you think
of the cold. This is also a recipe challenge so we will be looking for 1 image,
2 patterned papers, and 3 snowflakes.

I chose to
use Digistamps4Joy’s Gilly Gluwein for my card. She is dressed up all nice and
warm and holding her mug of Hot Apple Cider. Nothing like a nice hot mug of
apple cider on a cold day.

The style of
card that I decided to do is called an Upright Diamond fold card and you can
find the tutorial for it here.

The cs is by
Bazzil and the dp’s are pieces that I had left in my stash from another card.
The little hat and stocking were from my local dollar store as were the snowflakes.
The red flat backed pearls are by Recollections.

I used my
Nestibilities Scalloped Oval for my image and my inside sentiment. Both sentiments
are by Desert Diva.

I added
stickles to the pompom on her hat as well as the Merry Christmas sentiment and
the embellishment hat and stocking.

So now it’s
your turn and we would just love to see what you come up with. Just remember
that it is a recipe challenge and you need to have 1 image (digital or stamped)…of
course we would love to see a Digistamps4Joy image, and it would also get you a
chance to win $10 worth of Digistamps4Joy images…2 patterned papers, and 3
snowflakes. For
full challenge rules, and to check out the fabulous projects that the rest of
our very talented Design Team has come up with, just head on over to our
Challenge Blog.

While you’re
there you might also want to pop into the store and check out the store and all
of the incredible images that Margy has been adding. Every Sunday is a New
Release day so you can imaging how many wonderful images there are.

Thanks for
dropping by and From Our House to Yours…Have a Very Merry Christmas ~ Charlene

Friday, December 7, 2012

It’s that time again, time for another challenge from Pattie’s Creations. And what a fabulous challenge we have for you. If you haven’t been able to tell by how busy all of the malls and stores have become, Christmas will soon be upon us. Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am nowhere near ready for Christmas. Every year I tell myself that I will start making my Christmas cards early…well you know the old saying about the best laid plans of mice and men? Yup…that should give you an idea of how well that idea went *laughing*

Thankfully Pattie’s Creations has decided to have a challenge that will get at least 1 more of my many Christmas cards I need done. That’s right, our new challenge is for you to create a Christmas card.

I chose to use Pattie’s adorable images “Penguin Igloo” and Snow Globe.

I decided for this challenge to do a Gate fold card. The white and red cs is from Recollections. I used a digital paper by Bearly Mine Design and printed it out in shades of black and grey on the red to give me my dp.

The large snowflake behind the image and the small fabric snowflakes in the corners I got at my local dollar store. The ribbon is some that I’ve had in my stash for the last couple of years. I punched the corners with my SU ticket corner punch. I heat embossed the snow in the bottom of my snow globe and falling inside it…the embossing powder is called Christmas Tinsel and my sister gave it to me years ago.

The sentiment on the inside is part of a set of 10 different Christmas sentiments by Pattie’s Creations. I framed it with a frame, but for the life of me I can’t remember who the frame is by, so as soon as I know, I will post it here.

I coloured everything with a combination of my Staedtler pencil crayons with oms, my SU felts and my gold and green metallic pens. I used stickles on the penguin’s hat.

So now it’s your turn to show us what you’ve got. The challenge will be running until January 11th, 2013 as the DT is going to be taking a holiday. The rules for the challenge are easy…make a Christmas card…yes it must be a Christmas card and it must have a stamp (digital or rubber) on it. Please no back linking and turning off your word verification would really help us to make comments on your wonderful creations. For a list of all the rules and the fabulous prizes to be won, head on over to Pattie’s Challenge Blog. And while you’re there, check out the incredible creations that my fellow teamies have made.

It’s Freebie Friday time again at Digistamps4Joy and boy does Margy every have a great freebie for you this month. This freebie can be used for making some awesome gifts, as you will see by what the dt has done.

The freebie today is a “Setof Calendar Stamps” that you can find at the store. I made an easel card note pad holder/calendar with mine.

I paired up the calendar with Wisteria Splendor. The cs and dp I used was by SU and I coloured the Wisteria Splendor image with my SU felts. I did the door knocker and handle with my silver metallic pen and the grass in front with my Staedtler pencil crayons. The shape behind my image is from my Microsoft Word program. I made the sentiment on my computer.

I didn’t have a note pad that was 5x5, so I cut up loose leaf paper, punched holes in it with my cropodile and added brads to keep them together. The flowers are prisma flowers and I added the vine using my Meridian Border die by Memory box. I added just a touch of stickles onto the tops of my flowers. The 3 white flat backed pearls are by Recollections. The ribbon is something that I had in my stash.

So pop on over to the Digistamps4Joy Store and pick up your “Set of Calendar Stamps”…we can’t wait to see what you do with them. Then hop on over to our Challenge blog and see what the rest of the DT has to show you.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Hi everyone, I just wanted to show you a new card that I did up using a couple of Digistamps4Joy's new(er) images "Button Set" and "Neighbor Nancy"

I coloured her with my SU felts and my Staedtler pencil crayons with oms. I used the buttons for making the centers of my flowers. I used my Star Dust stickles on my flowers and added a small white flatbacked pearl to the center. I made my leaves with my Memory Box leaves die. The vine was made using my Meridian Border die by Memory Box.

The pearl spray, pearl swirl and ribbon were from my stash and the sentiment is from Birds Cards.

You can find all of these images and all of their other incredible one's, just head on over to Digistamps4Joy Store. And just a reminder...this Friday (December 7th) is Freebie Friday so while you're at the store check out the awesome freebie that Margy has for you. But don't wait because it's only going to be free for a short time (2 days) then you can buy it in the store.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

You read right, Pattie's Creations is having a sale...and just in time for Christmas! From Friday Nov. 30 until Saturday December 8th, Pattie is offering 20% off of all of her fabulous images! To take advantage of this great deal, just head on over to her shop and pick your favorites out of all of her fab images. At checkout, use the code ALLIE2 to receive your 20 % off. Now isn't that easy?

Friday, November 23, 2012

It’s Friday
again and that means another challenge at Pattie’s Creations…yippee!! This time
our challenge is Harvest Time or Thanksgiving Holiday. We are being sponsored
by Dude Time Doodles for this challenge and we were given some wonderful images
to choose from. I chose the image Pumpkin + Field as I just loved the look of
it so much.

The brown cs
is by Bazzil and the yellow/orange cs, green cs and dp is from SU. The ribbon
is some that I got at a garage sale and the swirls are by Deco. I coloured the
image with my SU felts and Staedtler pencil crayons.

Our challenge
is for 2 weeks and will end on Thursday December 6. We can’t wait to see what
you create. For all of the challenge rules and a list of prizes, please head on
over to our challenge blog. While you’re there check out all of the incredible
creations by my team mates.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

It’s
time for the reminder post for Digistamps4Joy’s current challenge. The theme of
the challenge is “Giving Thanks” so we want to see your creations on what you
are thankful for. You can be thankful for someone, for something someone has
done, for you animals, family, the weather…whatever it is that you want.

The
image that I chose to use for this challenge is Wisteria Splendor as I am
thankful for the home that I have. With the economy the way that it is and many
people not having a place to call home, I am thankful that my family and I have
a home to live in.

I
coloured the image with my Su felts and added some stickles to the Whisteria. I
made my snowflake flowers out of some confetti that I had in my stash and added
the ornaments on that I picked up at my local dollar store. I got the wonderful
ribbon from my wonderful friend Kim…it was part of her blogversary stash that I
won. The cs is from SU and the dp is stuff I had in my stash. The little red
flat backed pearls in my flowers are by Recollections. The medallion behind my
image is Whimsy Circle by Memory box. And the sentiment was done by me on my
computer.

As
this is a 3 week challenge this time, our challenge will continue until Dec. 3,
which gives you lots of time to join in. To see the challenge rules and list of
prizes head on over to our challenge blog. While you’re there check out what my
teammates have come up with and maybe leave them some love.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Hi
all, this posting is going to be a bit different than most of my other postings.
For those of you that don’t know, November is Men’s Health Awareness month. As
such, it has been renamed Movember and there are thousands of Movember
campaigns being done around the world. The idea of Movember is not only to
raise awareness of the health issues men face, but to also raise funds to help
with research for such serious and often deadly diseases such as prostate
cancer. I have 2 uncles that passed away from prostate cancer and I have to
wonder if they had been more aware of the medical issues men can have with
their prostates, if they would have been checked sooner.

Here
are some facts that have been posted on the National Movember web site:

The average life expectancy for men is four
to five years less than women.

1 in 4 Canadians are expected to die from
cancer.

1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate
cancer in their lifetime.

In 2012, 26,500 new cases of prostate cancer
will be diagnosed in men and 4,000 will lose their battle.

1 in 4 cancer patients experience clinical
depression

Testicular cancer is the most common cancer
in Canadian males between the ages of 15 and 29.

Tobacco is the single most preventable cause
of cancer in Canada, responsible for over 37,000 deaths annually.

1 in every 11 men will develop lung cancer.

While not as common, men can get breast
cancer. About 200 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed among men
and about 55 men will die from the disease.

More than 75,000 cases of non-melanoma skin
cancer are diagnosed each year in Canada.

An estimated 6.6% of the population over the
age of 20 has diabetes in Canada.

Approximately 6 million Canadian adults have
high blood pressure, representing 19% of the adult population; 17% are
unaware of their condition. Even 30 year olds can have high blood
pressure!

1 in 5 of Canadians will personally
experience a mental illness each year

Four times as many men commit suicide
compared with women

Now
I don’t know about you, but these stats are just mind blowing! And scary…these
are our husbands, father’s, brothers and sons we are talking about. And they
are dieing for reasons that can be avoided. And that’s just the tip of the
iceberg. To read up on what Movember is and the work that they are trying to
accomplish click here and it will take you directly to their National page.

The reason that I am writing about this is because my nephew, Chris, is part of the
Movember movement and is trying to raise funds. If you are able to, please
check out his blog and if you are able to, please make a donation to the cause.
It doesn't matter how big or small your donation is, every little bit helps. If you are not comfortable making a donation to his site, please consider the
national site or look for a Movember fundraiser near you.

We
all rally around the fundraisers for Breast Cancer and for cancer as a whole,
let’s rally around our men and let them know that their health is just as
important to us as ours is to them.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Hi
all, I hope that you have all been having a wonderful weekend. Things have been
really up in the air in my household…my parents came for a visit, which was
wonderful, but then our van died and we have been spending the last while
trying to find a new set of wheels for the hubby on little money. Ah well…what
do you do? Enough about the drama in my life…I know that you are here for
something totally different.

Now
today is Sunday and you all know what that means…yup, Digistamps4Joy is having
a new release and what a bunch of incredible images they are releasing. Margy,
our ever generous owner, gave us 2 different images to choose from this time…one
for today’s release and one to blow you away with later. The one that I decided
to use for today’s posting is called Beatrix the Bead Fairy. I combined her
with our Freebie, Joy and Peace Sentiment by Margy, from the beginning of the month.

The
green cs is by Bassil and the dp was from my stash. I coloured Beatrix and the
Joy and Peace Sentiment with my SU felts and my gold and red glitter pens and
my green metallic pen. I also used my Staedtler pencil crayons and oms for her
skin. I went over the wording of the sentiment with my gold felt. I got to use
my new die from Memory box (my dh was such a sweetie and knew that I was in
need of a pick me up recently so he bought me 2 new dies). I can’t remember the
name off the top of my head and but will come back and let you all know
tomorrow or later today. I
also added some gold flecked Stickles to the die and the holly berries. I
cut in around the holly in my dp with my exacto knife so that I could slip the
sentiment in and have the holly leaves “cradle” it.

To
see this new image and all of the rest of the releases, just go to our
Challenge Blog and check them out and all of the fabulous creations my teammates have made.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Hi
all, tomorrow is the first Friday of the month and you know what that means….yup….it’s
the day for Digistamps4Joy’s Friday Freebie!! And boy oh boy, you do not want
to miss out on this one…it is just too sweet!

Now
I can’t get into specifics…buuuuut.....Margy has come up with such a
wonderfully versatile image. And if you want to see some great inspiration
using it, well you will just have to stop by the online shop and check it
out.

Now
things have changed a bit for our Freebie Friday’s. You can now find the images
in our store under “Freebies”. It means that you will have to have an account
with Digistamps4Joy, but don’t worry you can sign up for free :)

Remember
that this sweet image is only going to be available for 2 days…on Sunday it
will go out of the Freebies area and be put into the store where you can buy
it.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Well today's the day that we announce the winners of our World Card Making Day Blog Hop! I hope that you all had as much fun as we did and were inspired by what we had to show you. So I won't keep you all in suspense any longer...since I don't have a fancy machine to do it for me, I assigned a number to every name and my dd picked a winner out of a bowl and the winner of the adorable image I used, Festive Snooze, is PUMPY (PAM)!!! Congratulations Pam...I am so excited for you and I can't wait to see what you do with this sweet little image! Thank you to everyone who joined in on our Blog Hop...it was so wonderful to read all of your comments and have you all become a follower of my blog. For a full list of winners head on over to our Challenge Blog. Hugs ~ Charlene

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

It’s
time for another challenge at Digistamps4Joy…well, actually it’s been on for a
week already and I’m just doing the one week reminder. Last week Team A posted
their lovely creations for our challenge, this week is Team B’s turn. So what
is this challenge you ask? Well this time we would like you to make a tag. That’s
right, we want to see tags. Now this can be a gift tag or a tag on a card, whatever
you choose to make.

So
since Christmas is just around the corner (sorry to remind you, but it’s true),
I decided to do a Christmas tag. I used Digistamps4Joy’s wonderful new image by
Jen Lee, called Vintage Lantern Girl. She was just so much fun to play with.

The
tag is a svg file by Birds Cards that I printed out and cut out by hand. I then
printed out the image on white cs and then paper pieced her outfit. I wish I
could tell you what the papers were, but they were just pieces I had in my
stash. I used my red glitter pen to trace out the pointsettias on her dress and
hat.

I
used my bronze metallic pen for the lamp and my gold glitter pen for the light
in the lamp.

I
then added stickles onto the “fur” part of her outfit and used my Staedtler
pencil crayons and oms to colour her dress, band on her hat her face and hair. I
used my white gel pen to add small white dots to her dress and the band of her
hat. The
Merry Christmas and the holly were part of my stash.

Now
it’s your turn to show us what you got. Just head on over to Digistamps4JoyChallenge blog to check out all the rules and prizes. And while you’re there,
check out what my team mates, from A and B, have done up to inspire you.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Welcome
to our World Card Making Day Blog Hop. You have arrived at Charlene’s Blog in
the Fraser Valley in Beautiful British Columbia, Canada.

To celebrate World
Card Making Day Digistamps4Joy is having a blog hop! And guess
what…Digistamps4Joy is also offering the prizes! And what prizes they are too.
Each DT member has gotten to choose her favorite image from the store to make a
project out of….and that is the prize for her blog. So the image she presents
it the image you have a chance to win! So with 12 stops along the hop, that
gives you 12 chances to win! You might win one image…you might win more as each
prize will be randomly drawn by each blog owner.

If
you landed on my page first, then just carry on down the list, and from the top
again till you are back at my blog OR start at the top at the Digistamps4Joy blog, and work
your way though to the final stop (Ursula’s blog). The hop order is indicated
on each blog, so you will not ‘get lost’!

This is the card that
I am showcasing for the Blog Hop. I used the image Festive
Snooze and you can get it at the store or maybe win it here.

I coloured it with
Staedtler Pencil crayons, oms, and my red and gold glitter pens. I used my
homemade white flower soft for the snow at the bottom of the image. I used my
SU Christmas Wheel (sorry, I don’t remember the exact name of it) and glitter
blue embossing powder to add the flourishes. The frame for the image and
sentiment was made with my Nestibilities Scalloped Oval Dies. In
behind the image I have added more of my heat embossed paper. The base dp is
from Bazzil and the glitter paper was some that I have had in my stash for
years. I also used the glitter paper to punch out the snowflakes. The ornament
is a svg from The Cutting Café. I used my SU ticket corner punch on some of my
corners. The card fold is called a Center Step Card.

Friday, October 5, 2012

If you would like a chance to win this adorable image or some of the 11 others being showcased, go to our blog hop by clicking here

Hello all, it’s
another beautiful day here in the Fraser Valley, the sun is shining and the sky
is blue…hard to believe that it’s fall already. Or that Christmas is around the
corner…brrrrr. And speaking of Christmas, I just have to show you the adorable
image that I just got to play with for our current blog hop at Digistamps4Joy.
The image is called Festive Snooze and let me tell you, this little guy looks
like he has really enjoyed Christmas.

I coloured it with
Staedtler Pencil crayons, oms, and my red and gold glitter pens. I used my
homemade white flower soft for the snow at the bottom of the image. I used my
SU Christmas Wheel (sorry, I don’t remember the exact name of it) and glitter
blue embossing powder to add the flourishes. The frame for the image and
sentiment was made with my Nestibilities Scalloped Oval Dies. The base dp is
from Bazzil and the glitter paper was some that I have had in my stash for
years. I also used the glitter paper to punch out the snowflakes. The ornament
is a svg from The Cutting Café. I used my SU ticket corner punch on some of my
corners. The card fold is called a Center Step Card and you can find it here.

You can find this
adorable image at the Digistamps4Joy store or you can join in on our blog hop
and have a chance of winning it when I do my random draw.

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About Me

Hello, my name is Charlene. I have been married to my wonderful husband for 26 years and I have 2 children. A boy 25 and a girl 21. I live on the West Coast of British Columbia, Canada...better known as the Wet Coast because of the amount of rain that we get.
I first started crafting when my son was in his second year of Beavers. My husband and I became leaders that year with 2 other wonderful people. I found that I had a nack for finding ways of making crafts for the Beavers to do that were cute but inexpesive. I moved on from Beavers into Guiding and followed my daughter through her 2 years of Sparks and Brownies and her first year of Guides. When she left I continued on for a few years. During this time I found that I loved making things by hand for people...so when I was introduced to making cards 3 years ago, I jumped into it enthusiastically. And I have never regretted it. Making cards has given me a creative outlet that not only lets me express myself, but allows me to give something to my family and friends that is truly unique.